Lauris Edmond
Lauris Dorothy Edmond, OBE (2 April 1924 - 28 January 2000), was a New Zealand poet and prose writer. Life Born in Dannevirke, Hawke's Bay, Edmond survived the 1931 Napier earthquake as a child. Trained as a teacher, she raised a family before publishing her poetry. Edmond had written poetry throughout her life but decided to publish her debut collection, In Middle Air, only in 1975, at the age of 51.Lauris Edmond, In Middle Air: Poems (Christchurch, New Zealand, Pegasus Press, 1975). Following In Middle Air, she published many volumes of poetry, a novel, an autobiography (Hot October, 1989) and several plays. She began her editorial activities in 1979, and in 1980 published a selection of poems by Chris Ward.Chris Ward, A Remedial Persiflage, ed. Lauris Edmond; designed by Katherine Edmond cartoons by Harold Hill (Wellington, New Zealand, PPTA Head Office, 1980). In 1981 she edited the letters of A.R.D. Fairburn (1904-1957), a noted New Zealand poet of an earlier generation.A.R.D. Fairburn, The Letters of A.R.D. Fairburn; selected and edited by Lauris Edmond (Auckland, New Zealand, Oxford University Press, 1981). It was a bold move on her part as the writer in question was not known for his progressive views,Fairburn is said, for example, to have referred to women poets as ‘the menstrual school of poetry’; see Peter Simpson, ‘The Fairburn Problem’, New Zealand Listener, vol. 197, No. 3376 (22–28 January 2005). but the publication established her as an all‑round woman of letters. Also in 1981, Edmond received the Katherine Mansfield Memorial Fellowship, which enabled her to stay in Menton, in the south of France, for several months. The Times of London wrote in her obituary (9 February 2000, 23) that she acquired ‘a sharp new consciousness of her nationality’ through her absence from New Zealand after a year in Menton. As Janet Wilson wrote in the Guardian, ‘She was friend to several generations of women, especially writers, who admired her as a pioneer for breaking with social convention and carving out a successful literary life at a time when this seemed risky’.Janet Wilson, ‘Lauris Edmond: She Found Poetry in Family Life and Motherhood’, Guardian (London), 16 March 2000. Edmond died unexpectedly at her home in Wellington’s Oriental Bay on the morning of 28 January 2000. A friend arriving for dinner that evening discovered her body. She was 75, the mother of six children, 5 of them daughters (one of whom - Rachel, the fourth child - committed suicide in 1975; the event is dealt with in Edmond’s poem-sequence Wellington Letter''Lauris Edmond, ''Wellington Letter: A Sequence of Poems (Wellington, New Zealand, Mallinson Rendel, 1980).). Her only son, Martin Edmond (born 1952), is also a writer. Writing Prose Edmond’s earliest work of prose was High Country Weather, a book billed as a novel though in fact an extended short‑story of a deeply biographical character, telling — however veiledly — the story of her own incompatible marriage to Trevor Edmond (1920–1990); it was published in 1984, at about the time of her real‑life marriage’s dissolution.Lauris Edmond, High Country Weather: A Novel (Sydney, N.S.W., Allen & Unwin; Wellington, New Zealand, Port Nicholson Press, 1984). See also Martin Edmond, The Autobiography of My Father (Auckland, New Zealand, Auckland University Press, 1992), which was written in response to the publication of Lauris Edmond’s three-volume autobiography in 1989–1992, and which was intended to cast the figure of Trevor Edmond in a light significantly different from that in which his ex‑wife portrayed him. The feminist awakening marked by that book was sustained in a collection of other women’s ‘stories’ published under her co‑editorship two years later.Women in Wartime: New Zealand Women Tell their Story; edited by Lauris Edmond, with Carolyn Milward (Wellington, New Zealand, Government Printing Office Publishing, 1986). Poetry Edmond's poetry, which continues to influence New Zealand writers,Cf. e.g. David Hill, ‘How Green it was’, New Zealand Listener (Arts & Books Section), vol. 197, No. 3382 (5-11 March 2005). However, Fleur Adcock, an expatriate New Zealand poetess resident in London, would seem, for one, to want to distance herself from Lauris Edmond’s legacy (the reasons for this are not altogether clear); cf. her interview in Christine Sheehy, ‘The Resurrected Muse’, New Zealand Listener (Arts & Books Section), vol. 204, No. 3451 (1–7 July 2006). was not all about daffodils; she could speak with a committed voice, as is evidenced in the poem "Nuclear Bomb Test, Mururoa Atoll," which begins:< :I am water I am sand :I am a cell in the trembling earth :I am a shaken pebble on the hurt sea floor :a young fish made ill by the predator poison :coursing towards me across the ocean :that was my friend...''Lauris Edmond, ''A Matter of Timing (Auckland, New Zealand, Auckland University Press, 1996). Although in life she stayed as far away as was possible from all forms of organized religion, in death her quotations do apparently find their way into various church settings in New Zealand, a proof — if one be needed — of their deep innate spirituality.Cf. Tim Watkin, ‘Repackaging Jesus’, New Zealand Listener, vol. 196, No. 3372 (25–31 December 2004). Recognition In Middle Air was awarded the PEN Best First Book Award for 1975. In 1985 Edmond won the Commonwealth Poetry Prize for her Selected Poems.Lauris Edmond, Selected Poems (Auckland, New Zealand, Oxford University Press, 1984). in the 1986 Queen's Birthday Honours, she was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire for services to literature.[http://www.london-gazette.co.uk/issues/50553/supplements/31 London Gazette (supplement), No. 50553, 13 June 1986]. Retrieved 21 January 2013. In 1987 she received the Lilian Ida Smith Award from PEN New Zealand. In 1988 New Zealand’s Massey University awarded her an honorary D.Litt. degree In 1999 she received the A.W. Reed Award for Contribution to New Zealand Literature from Booksellers New Zealand, an industry association in Wellington, New Zealand. After her death a biennial poetry prize was established in her name at the initiative of the Canterbury Poets Collective and the New Zealand Poetry Society, the Lauris Edmond Memorial ''' '''Award for Poetry, the inaugural prize being awarded posthumously to poet Bill Sewell at the Christchurch Arts Festival in 2003. Publications Poetry *''In Middle Air: Poems''. Christchurch, NZ: Pegasus Press, 1975. *''The Pear Tree: Poems''. Christchurch, NZ: Pegasus Press, 1977. *''Wellington Letter: A Sequence of Poems''. Wellington: M. Rendall, 1980. *''Seven: Poems''. Wellington: Wayzgoose Prss, 1980. *''Salt from the North: Poems''. Wellington & New York: Oxford University Press, 1980. *''Catching It: Poems''. Auckland & Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1983. *''Selected Poems''. Auckland & Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1984. *''Seasons and Creatures''. Auckland & Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1986. *''Summer near the Arctic Circle''. Auckland & Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1988. *''Five Villanelles''. Wellington: Peppercorn Press, 1991. *''New and Selected Poems''. Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Bloodaxe, 1992. *''Scenes from a Small City''. Wellington: D. Brasell, 1994. *''Selected Poems, 1975-1994. Wellington: Bridget Williams Books, 1994.'' *''A Matter of Timing''. Auckland: Auckland University Press, 1996. *''In Position''. Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Bloodaxe, 1997. *''50 Poems: A celebration'' (edited by Harry Ricketts & Bill Sewell). Wellington: Bridget Williams Books, 1999. *''Late Song''. Auckland: Auckland University Press, 2000. *''Carnival of New Zealand Creatures''. Wellington: Pemmican Press, 2001. *''Selected Poems, 1975-2000'' (edited by K.O. Arvidson). Wellington: Bridget Williams Books, 2001. Novel *''High Country Weather: A novel''. North Sydney, NSW: Allen & Unwin / Wellington: Port Nicholson Press, 1984. Non-fiction *''Hot October: An autobiographical story''. Wellington & Winchester, MA: Allen & Unwin / Wellington: Port Nicholson Press, 1989. *''Bonfires in the Rain'' (autobiography, volume 2). Wellington: Bridget Williams Books, 1991. *''The Quick World'' (autobiography, volume 3). Wellington: Bridget Williams Books, 1992. *''Lauris Edmond: An autobiography''. Wellington: Bridget Williams Books, 2001. Edited *A.R.D. Fairburn, The Letters of A.R.D. Fairburn. Auckland & New York: Oxford University Press, 1981. *''New Zealand Love Poems: An Oxford anthology''. Auckland: Oxford University Press, 2000. *''Essential New Zealand Poems'' (edited with Bill Sewell). Auckland: Godwit, 2001. Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.Search results = au:Lauris Edmond, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, Mar. 22, 2014. Audio / video *''The Poetry of Lauris Edmond'' (cassette). Auckland: McCurdy Music, 1992. See also *List of New Zealand poets References * Ken Arvidson, ‘Lauris Edmond (1924-2000)’, New Zealand Books periodical Lauris Edmond co‑founded in 1990, vol. 10, No. 1 (March 2000), p. 23. * James Brown, ed., The Nature of Things: Poems from the New Zealand Landscape... photographs by Craig Potton (Nelson, New Zealand, Craig Potton Pub., 2005) contributions by Lauris Edmond. * Kate Camp, ed., Wellington: The City in Literature (Auckland, New Zealand, Exisle Pub., 2003) a contribution by Lauris Edmond. * Jill Ker Conway, ed. & intro., In her own Words: Women’s Memoirs from Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and the United States (New York, Vintage Books, 1999) a contribution by Lauris Edmond. * Louise Lawrence, ed. & intro., The Penguin Book of New Zealand Letters (Auckland, New Zealand, Penguin Books, 2003) a contribution by Lauris Edmond. * Michael O’Leary and Mark Pirie, eds., Greatest Hits (Wellington, New Zealand, JAAM Publishing Collective, in association with HeadworX/ESAW, 2004) contributions by Lauris Edmond. * Nelson Wattie, ‘New Literatures’, Year’s Work in English Studies (Oxford, England), vol. 83, No. 1 (2004), pp. 922–1025 that the nearness of Lauris Edmond’s poetry to solipsism defeats its own claim to generosity of spirit. Notes External links ;Poems *Lauris Edmond at My Poetic Side *Lauris Dorothy Edmond at PoemHunter (4 poems) *Lauris Edmond at the New Zealand Electronic Poetry Centre ;Books *Lauris Edmond at Amazon.com *Lauris Edmond at the New Zealand Literature File ;About *Edmond, Lauris at the New Zealand Book Council Category:1924 births Category:2000 deaths Category:New Zealand women poets Category:New Zealand women novelists Category:Officers of the Order of the British Empire Category:People from Dannevirke Category:20th-century New Zealand novelists Category:20th-century poets Category:English-language poets Category:New Zealand poets Category:Poets Category:20th-century women writers Category:New Zealand women writers